POLICY WIRE FACT CHECK: Fabricated Quotes Regarding Abdul El
The Claim A viral claim has been circulating across social media platforms, alleging that Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed explicitly stated it is “OK” for girls or young women to...
The Claim
A viral claim has been circulating across social media platforms, alleging that Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed explicitly stated it is “OK” for girls or young women to see male genitals in locker rooms. The claim suggests that El-Sayed justified this stance by arguing that young people can access such imagery just as easily on the internet, making the enforcement of gender-seg de-segregated locker rooms pointless.
The allegation gained significant traction on X (formerly Twitter) in the lead-up to the 2026 midterm elections. High-profile accounts shared purported clips and direct quotes, one of which read: Your daughters are going to see male genitals anyway…so who cares if they see it in their locker room… These posts were framed as a national scandal to discredit El-Sayed against his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers.
The Details & Investigation
The PolicyWire Investigative Desk conducted a comprehensive review of the source material: an extended interview with Abdul El-Sayed on “60 Minutes” which aired on November 1, 2026. The interview focused on the contentious Michigan Senate race and cultural flashpoints, including the conflict between parental rights and cultural liberalism. However, our analysis of the full-length video and the official transcript provided by CBS News confirms that El-Sayed never mentioned locker rooms or genitalia in any context.
In the actual interview, interviewer Ross Douthat asked El-Sayed about the rights of parents to control education, specifically citing tensions regarding transgender children participating in sports. El-Sayed’s response was a broader philosophical argument regarding the digital age. He argued that in an era of smartphones, attempting to shield children from potentially disagreeable information through school is “profoundly outdated” because the world’s information is already in their pockets. He emphasized that the role of parents is to coach their children through what they see rather than trying to prevent exposure to it entirely.
Our investigation categorizes this viral claim as DISINFORMATION. While the video clip used in social media posts was authentic, the specific quotes attributed to El-Sayed were entirely fabricated. There is no evidence that El-Sayed ever made these statements publicly. The individuals sharing the claim intentionally hyperbolized his response about digital information access, twisting it into a specific, inflammatory narrative designed to create a false scandal during a critical election cycle. We reached out to El-Sayed for comment on the fabricated quotes, but as of this report, no statement has been received.
The Verdict
The claim that Abdul El-Sayed supported or advocated for the presence of male genitalia in girls’ locker rooms is FALSE. There is no record in the public domain or the cited interview of such a statement being made. The quotes circulating online were manufactured to misrepresent a broader philosophical discussion about modern parenting and the digital age.
Because the quotes were deliberately invented and distributed to damage a candidate’s reputation, this constitutes a clear case of coordinated disinformation.
Counter-misinformation & disinformation investigation conducted by PolicyWire Editorial Desk (PW).
